1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to the general field of vending machines for articles of consumption in public places. In particular, it describes a new and improved mechanism for dispensing newspapers from a vending machine.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Newspaper vending machines have been part of the American scene for a long time and have been used to dispense all kinds of magazines and newspapers to the public. They can normally be found on street corners and in public places, such as bus stations, airports, and the like, and they typically consist of a secured enclosure where folded newspapers are stored for release to a purchaser either automatically or by allowing access to the papers in response to the deposit of a predetermined payment in the form of a coin or token.
Halone et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,501,379 (1985) shows a newspaper dispensing apparatus that consists of a spring-loaded stack of papers in an enclosed container that is not accessible to the public. The newspapers are extracted through an apposite slot, one by one, after payment of the appropriate purchase price. The extraction is effected by two mechanical fingers that grab the fold of the paper and pull it forward toward the slot, far enough out for a purchaser to be able to reach it and fully remove it. The fingers work on a horizontal plane with a motion provided by a carriage driven by a lever actuated by the purchaser of the paper.
Hatcher U.S. Pat. No. 2,832,506 (1958), Hart U.S. Pat. No. 3,318,478 (1967), Harris U.S. Pat. No. 3,709,405 (1973) and Anderson U.S. Pat. No. 4,770,321 (1988) all disclose similar machines to dispense magazines and newspapers without permitting direct access to them. Camelo et al. U.S. Pat. No. 1,506,813 (1924) and Hight et al. U.S. Pat. No. 2,006,100 (1935) describe various mechanisms for extracting a folded newspaper from a stack stored in the vending machine. All of these patents consist of fairly complicated mechanical systems requiring sophisticated assemblies of specially designed components. Therefore, the resulting vending machines are expensive to manufacture.
Although not found during the course of a patent search, the prior art also includes machines that do not automatically dispense a newspaper to a user; instead, they provide access to the newspapers through a hatch released by payment of the appropriate fee into a coin acceptor. Once activated, the hatch is released and the user has full access to all newspapers stored in the machine until the hatch is closed again. Therefore, more than one paper may be taken with a single payment.
Thus, there is still a need for a vending machine that limits access to one newspaper at a time and that is implemented with an economically manufactured design. The present invention is directed at fulfilling these functions by providing a much simplified mechanism for extracting a single newspaper from the stack stored in the vending machine.